BOSTON (AP) – Alexei Zhitnik scored the winning goal 4:38 into the third period and Garth Snow made 26 saves as the New York Islanders beat Boston 2-1 in the Bruins’ exhibition home opener Friday night.

Joel Bouchard and Miroslav Satan assisted on Zhitnik’s power-play goal, a slap shot from right inside the blue line that flew past Boston goalie Tim Thomas. It was the third goal of the preseason for Zhitnik.

Boston then had several scoring opportunities, but Snow stopped 11 shots in the final period to seal the win for New York (2-1).

The Islanders and Bruins combined for 17 penalties, but both teams struggled on the power play. Boston went 0-for-8 and New York was 1-for-6.

Both teams failed to score with 5-on-3 advantages in the first period.

Andrew Raycroft, a week after ending a brief holdout by coming to terms on a one-year contract, saw his first action of the preseason, making 11 saves in two periods for Boston (1-2).

Thomas relieved Raycroft to start the third period and quickly gave up Zhitnik’s goal.

The Islanders took a 1-0 lead when Sean Bergenheim recorded his first goal of the preseason off a pass from Ryan O’Marra with less than three minutes left in the first period.

The Bruins then tied the score a minute later when Eric Healey scored his first goal of the preseason by poking in a rebound past Snow.

AP-ES-09-23-05 2204EDT

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